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Track of the CatNevada BarrReviewed by Kathy Hare

It’s November,
time to get moving on that holiday shopping list. This month I’m
reviewing a book that would make a perfect gift for the mystery genre
lovers on your list. “Track of the Cat,” by Nevada Barr, is the first in
a series of 18 mysteries, all of which take place in a different
“national park.” So if the recipient of this book enjoys it as much as I
did, they can continue reading Barr’s mysteries, while getting to know
the landscape of some of the finest places in this country.
To say Barr’s background
has significantly impacted her writing is an understatement. Since she
works as a park ranger, she knows how the system functions, and the
characters in the stories are no doubt a compilation of her associates.
Combining those factors with her vivid imagination and ability to create
a complex web of clues, Barr created an award-winning mystery series
praised by Tony Hillerman and other mystery writers.
As protagonist Anna
Pigeon views her surroundings in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, she
reflects on its other worldliness. The Texan landscape is a mixture of
mountains and desert, a far cry from her former home, the concrete
jungle of New York City. Yet oddly enough, Anna feels more at home in
her new environment than she ever did in Manhattan. But after three days
of trekking across the harsh terrain, looking for signs of mountain lion
activity, she yearns for a few advantages civilization has to offer. It
shouldn’t be long now before she’s sipping a glass of wine and enjoying
the company of her boyfriend, Rogelio.
But first she must
traverse the boulder field of the Middle McKittrick, and then make her
way through a narrow canyon scoured out centuries ago by torrential
floods. What remains is a deep trough, with towering sandstone walls on
either side. “Not a good place to be caught during the Texas monsoons in
July and August,” she thinks. Lucky for her, the heavy rains will not
appear for another month. Still, the smell of water permeates the dry
air. In front of her lies what appears to be an anomaly in this desert
landscape, a basin filled with crystal-clear water, surrounded by
razor-sharp saw grass.
Approaching the pool,
another smell assails her, the unmistakable odor of death. Seeking to
discover if it’s a “lion kill,” she wades into the grass. There she
finds the body of Sheila Drury, “the Dog Canyon Ranger.”
Knowing both radio and
cell phone reception is nonexistent deep inside the canyon, Anna scales
the slick-rock walls until she reaches a height where she can contact
Paul Decker, “the Frijole District Ranger.” Informing him of the
situation, she’s upset to learn no help will be available until morning.
Unwilling to leave Drury’s body to scavengers, Anna’s only option is to
hunker down and wait. It will be a long and sleepless night.
Officially, Drury’s death
is attributed to a cougar attack. “Nothing suspicious about it,”
officials from the Park Service claim. However, as Anna recalls the
scene, she believes the state of Drury’s body makes a mountain lion
attack extremely unlikely. Taking it upon herself, she begins her own
investigation.
There is a limited list
of suspects. Will it be Craig Eastern, known to other park rangers as
being a little different; or Manny Mankins, “a wiry naturalist,” whose
strength far exceeds what his slim frame projects? In juxtaposition to
Mankins is Karl Johnson, a burly man who reminds Anna of “the
quintessential ogre in children’s fairy tales,” who gently cares for the
park’s horses and mules. But, Anna muses, Johnson was recently demoted
from superintendent of Dog Canyon; and he wasn’t happy about being
replaced by Drury. Next is Harland Roberts, who puts his previous
military training to good use as supervisor of the park’s maintenance
department. Added to the list are a few local ranchers, who despise the
federal protection accorded to the mountain lions roaming the area.
Could one of them be the murderer?
Then again, women can
kill too, a fact Anna cannot afford to overlook. Cheryl Light, new to
the team, is “a woodsy type” who can hold her own in most battles. And
Christina Walters, a clerk typist, has a sexual orientation that may
give her a motive for killing Drury.
As in most mysteries, one
death leads to another, with twists and turns that put the protagonist
into life-threatening situations. In between the suspense, readers get a
chance to decompress when Anna interacts with Rogelio, or phones her
sister, Molly, a psychologist in New York.
Read Barr’s biographic
information on her website, and it’s obvious she modeled Anna after
herself, at least as far as career choices go. The great thing about
fiction writing is how a talented author can use their everyday
experience and enhance it with knowledge of a setting, while creating a
strong protagonist that is everything the author ever wanted to be.
Thus, Anna Pigeon is smart, resourceful, and fearless, which is why she
is featured throughout the entire series. But best of all, Anna has a
unique sense of justice that can only be tolerated in the world of
fiction.
Colorado mystery buffs
will be happy to learn Barr features Mesa Verde National Park and Rocky
Mountain National Park in two other novels. While her “Anna Pigeon”
series can be read in any order, I suggest starting at the beginning
with “Track of the Cat.”
Enjoy!